“The campaign is targeting the coal boiler on the south campus. It produces stream for hot water during the winter months and has a significant carbon output,” Toulme said. “It’s the single biggest point-polluter in the county.”

“With the global issue of climate change, it does emit a significant amount of carbon dioxide,” she said.

And the club’s commitment and hard work has partially paid off.

“We have been trying to get the administration to commit to retiring the coal boiler and replacing it with a better alternative,” Toulme said. “The administration this past spring semester put out a call to engineering firms for proposals on how to replace the coal boiler.”

But how exactly do things like coal boilers cause global warming?

“I learned in middle school that it’s like adding an extra blanket. If you keep adding extra blankets to yourself you’re going to burn up,” she said. “By adding more and more of these heat-causing particles, you’re adding more and more blankets, as a metaphor, to the atmosphere.”

Students at other schools are also working hard to prevent the effects of climate change.

What started off as a desire for a cleaner beach in her California hometown turned into a lifelong passion and Kelty, 21, is extremely dedicated to her cause.

Her club has a monthly green film series to benefit environmental non-profits. They show films based on climate or other environmental issues and then have a guest panel featuring a variety of professionals.

The club is also working on a project that will raise awareness of the pollution and toxicity of an area close to home.

“I’ve been trying to develop a bi-monthly biking toxic tour where we’d do a 10-mile route on bike and bring community members and students out to the Ship Channel,” Kelty said.

The Ship Channel, a Houston seaport, was featured on CNN’s Planet in Peril in 2007. A study released that year by the University of Texas showed that children who lived within two miles of the ship channel had a 56% greater chance of getting leukemia than those who lived in neighborhoods farther away.

Kelty said reports like these that show the damaging effects of certain environments, and not just genetics and lifestyle, is why she is passionate about environmental toxicology.

And she is just as passionate about climate change, which is partly caused by toxic emissions.

“It’s important to show people that this is not just about some big global issue but that it is a local issue. Climate change is about the drought that happened in Texas. Climate change is about the hurricanes that went through New Orleans,” she said. “We need to get people to understand that climate change and air pollution and water pollutions are all a part of the same issue.”

So how can students — or other individuals make a difference?

“Educate yourself about climate change, then educate others. Have a conversation at the dinner table when you’re home or bring it up with other students,” said Hody Nemes, a recent Yale graduate with a degree in environmental studies. “Also make small changes in your own life to reduce your carbon footprints.”

Toulme, like Nemes, believes that education is a key step in preventing climate change from worsening.

“It’s really about taking personal responsibility and not doing things like putting your air conditioning at 69 degrees in the middle of the summer and being responsible with your choices,” she said.

And she also suggests students be smart about their electricity usage.

“Every time you use your laptop, something (most likely coal) had to burn. You have to realize where the majority of that energy is coming from, from your microwave to your TV to your lights. Most of that is fossil fuel. And fossil fuel is carbon based and puts that into the atmosphere,” Toulme said.

Kelty also pointed out that eating locally, carpooling or biking and turning off lights when you do not need them are also ways to lessen your carbon footprint.

“Every molecule of carbon dioxide we prevent from entering the atmosphere is one molecule closer to a stable climate,” Nemes said.